I’ve just experienced the infamous bambu support…
So poor that it’s actually put me off buying any more printers or parts from them.
I purchased a 0.4 hardened steel nozzle to specifically print (bambu) PLA-CF.
First print failed spectacularly - not a full blockage, but the feeder gear refused to push the filament through at a sufficient level, and I ended up with something resembling cottage cheese!
No physical blockages anywhere at all - even took the extruder apart to check - but now can’t even print regular PLA with the hotend without the same thing happening.
So fair enough I thought - clear manufacturing error with the hotend.
I contacted support, and after 4 days I got a curt response that nozzles are consumables and not covered under warranty.
So buyer beware - if you’re running a print business, I’d strongly consider whether you’re willing to absorb the cost of any faulty parts when purchasing from Bambu. Their no warranty policy also directly contravenes uk consumer law, which is a whole other issue.
Anyway, a real shame.
I was incredibly supportive of Bambu up until this issue as the hardware - when it works - is very good.
I’m not prepared to throw money away on hardware with no warranty or support though.
No ams, new to the Bambu, but certainly not new to 3d printing. 5 other fdms and 4 resin printers.
I’ve stripped down everything and there’s no filament blocks anywhere at all. I’ve even run filament cleaning thread through it as a last resort - comes out clean.
The hotend still ‘prints’ but (any filament) comes out either in uneven lines (which is when the gear skips) or if I increase the temp over what is recommended for bambu pla-cf then it flows a bit better, but at about half the width of the 0.4 nozzle size.
It seems quite clear that it’s a hotend that hasn’t been properly milled, but frankly even if that weren’t the case the response from support telling me that it was a consumable and not under warranty at all was offputting enough to shift me away from the brand.
if a faulty nozzel
( if its really the hotend…because for example a rest of filament in the extruder is hard to detect unless you take apart the whole extruder) is a reason to go back to another fdm…then have a nice day…my experience here in this forum is, that 95% of all problems is caused by the user…( my 1% of misprints were 99% my fault so far)
You can only be sure thats the hotend is milled bad if you use at least some kind of macro pictures of the nozzle
thanks for your input - and I appreciate that you’re clearly a happy user - but one of the first things I did was take the extruder fully apart to see if there was any filament in there - there wasn’t.
Of course most 3d printing issues are indeed user related, but manufacturing issues do also happen - just search for reports of doa machines on the discord. For Bambu to not even entertain that idea that they’re in the wrong here is ridiculous.
To be clear, the issue is not that I think a $15 hotend is faulty from delivery, it’s that Bambu are stating it’s not a warranty issue before even properly examining the facts. Why would I risk buying another hotend from them in that situation? Not worth the risk frankly.
I just got a new chamber camera through support and it only took 6 days from filling out the form to delivery of the replacement camera. I’m sure they deal with lots of printing newbs so they make you prove it is really an issue with the hardware vs user error. Don’t take it personally, this is standard first response from support of every company I’ve ever dealt with.
If you take some pictures and prove to them you got bad stuff then they will replace it. You could show them a good print with your other nozzle and the bad print with the bad nozzle. Maybe send some pictures of the Bambu sitting next to your other printers so they know you are experienced.
FYI
I’ve been using one of these knockoff Aliexpress hot ends and love it. Makes it so much easier to change nozzle sizes and the CHT clone nozzles allow for faster printing.
Thanks, good idea about adding some pics to the ticket.
I was considering the third party hotend approach because of this - good to know that you’ve had a positive experience with them.
Just received an update from support saying “to enhance customer experience, we can replace the nozzle as a one time courtesy.”
So hopefully the issue is on the right track now - I’ll update accordingly…
Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions.
I’ve ordered one of the mentioned aliexpress hotends earlier today - regardless of this outcome, seems a good idea not to be too reliant on one source.
Hallo
Ich habe auch ähnliches erlebt….Nur bei mir wüsste NICHT Support was ich geschrieben habe obwohl Ich Fehler geschrieben und abfotografiert habe(3 mal Extruder war verstopft,einmal bei 7 cm höhe und was schlimmer ist bei 13 cm höhe),sowas Inkompetente Mann bei Support, ist nur schade das man bei preis von 1600 Euro nicht mal Extruder schicken kann,unverschämt ist es!!!
Ich entschuldige mich wegen Schreibfehler,das liegt an meine Krankheit und ist nicht gewollt.
I don’t want to comment on Bambu support, so setting that aside, I think you should have at least one spare full hot-end assembly. I’d also recommend getting a 0.6 nozzle in addition to the std 0.4 so you can print faster (and stronger) parts where the fine resolution doesn’t matter as much. A spare extruder is also really worth it. Then diagnosing problems becomes a matter of swapping things out to see what causes it to succeed/fail. In the end, this is a ~$50-$80 expense on a $1600 printer… and these parts do wear out so you will use them eventually.